Clever Carpets

Not that I would consider carpet my first choice for interior design, its interesting now how more and more inteligent systems are being introduced into furnishing products such as carpets.

Carpets with inbuilt intelligence can now run office functions such as climate control, alarm systems and guidance technology. A partnership between two German firms, carpet maker Vorwerk Teppichwerke and semiconductor specialist Infineon Technologies has created a ‘Thinking Carpet’, equipped with sensors able to manage a range of control functions in the office of the future

For instance, pressure sensors can report an alarm as soon as people enter a security zone. In the process, intelligent software solutions are able to analyse the signals, even individually. Thus an alarm is triggered, for example, only when traces of movement commence on a window or an emergency exit, but not at free-access entrances. Security zones can be individually defined and individually controlled on a time-frame basis as well. As soon as registered signals are additionally relayed to a security control centre, the point of alarm (break-in or fire) can be localised precisely in a matter of seconds. Besides this, pressure sensors in the carpet can also be utilised as door-openers and light switches, or as electronic counters for people, too.

In combination with shatterproof LED modules, the ‘Thinking Carpet’ also becomes a controllable guidance system. For example, in this case light-emitting diodes in the carpet mark the shortest route to an emergency exit. The combination of different sensory functions (pressure, temperature and motion) can additionally enable the detection of people lying motionless on the floor, triggering a call for emergency help.

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